Future Pinball, the logical
successor to Visual Pinball, has finally reached the light of day as it
was released two days ago. I'm all over it playing and experimenting a bit
with the editor, and I tell ya, if you have a decent computer (most
importantly a good video card), get it
here, because
it's simply the best you can get!

... 26th September 2005:
Relaunch!

After a long time, Silverball Magic is back with a fresh look and new
content! I've decided to overhaul the layout since it was about time to
give the site a more professional and elegant appearance. In theory not
much has changed, but I think the new colours and header graphics enhance
the image quite a bit.

Here's what's new:

There is now a section in "My Pinball Machines"
called "Related Articles" where I will put any pages I write about stuff
that has to do with pinball, but isn't related to any specific pinball
machine. The Stephanie Rogers meeting article
now resides there and I have also written a new one about a topic I always
had on my mind: what makes pinball special, why do people like it and can
it hold up against today's modern forms of entertainment? Check out the
article here.

I have learned that my digital camera was not operating at peak
performance when I took all the photos you can find on this website, and
in many cases this resulted in ugly line and dot noise. This doesn't have
anything to do with the resolution or poor JPEG compression, it is the way
my cam handles the picture compression internally. This is why I have
exchanged lots of photos in the article about The Machine with new
high-quality pictures I recently shot. Of course I cannot correct pictures
of machines I no longer own, but I will try and take the best possible
photos of future machines that appear on this website.

What's planned:

I wanted to complete both "Operator's Stuff"
and "Visual Pinball", but then this site would still
not be open for another three weeks or so. This is why I want to take my
time with this and make it perfect while the finished content is up and
running.

Enjoy this latest instalment of Silverball Magic!

... 1st August 2005: Boldly Go

Star Trek: The Next Generation has been finished; it's working, it's clean
and it's touched up. I have completed the
repair & restoration logs page
and I've also updated the main article.

...
23rd July 2005: Meeting the Bride

In a most daring attempt, I rushed to Frankfurt last night to meet
Stephanie Rogers - in person - and I chatted with her about more
pin-ball and music stuff for a few hours. It was a rare and exclusive
occasion, exclusive enough to warrant an
article about it!

...
18th July 2005: Work in Progress

I added a little update section to the
Stargate article in regard to the drop targets. An audio sample is
still missing, but it will come soon!

I removed the mylar from STTNG's playfield and the result was a small
catastrophe on the upper playfield. But I was able to touch it up nicely
and a photo story of this has been added to the
STTNG logs page.

...
11th July 2005: Stargate in Action

The Sin 2 announcement has been made and the official website is open at
www.sinepisodes.com. Stargate
arrived on Friday and I quickly embraced it and wrote an
article about it. Beware: lots of
detailed photos and text! An audio clip of a game will come soon.

When I looked over the CPU connectors in STTNG again, I noticed that there
was a bridge between the connector on the CPU board and the one on the
power driver board. On this bridge the wires met in another two
connectors. I disconnected the bridge to inspect these connectors for any
problems since I could not see any on the CPU board connector which I had
suspected before. And guess what? The last time I had the machine running,
I measured almost 5.05 volts arriving at the CPU board! This means that
the bridge was the cause of the resistance and the low voltage, and
reseating the connectors on it solved it! However, as
Marvin always says,
reseating doesn't fix it...

...
7th July 2005: It's Happening

On a non-pinball note, I want to spread the news that the first official
and semi-official (hidden) information clearly states: SIN 2 is coming.
Or rather "Sin Episodes", as the official name of the new game refers to
its episodic release with one episode running about six gameplay hours,
and all of them released via Valve's Steam publishing network. This is SO
OMFG!! I'm one of the biggest Sin fans in this world; I was there when the
game came out and it was my first person shooter debut as I had not played
any FPS before, and Sin grabbed me with its style, comedy, story and
realism. I played this game from start to finish thirty times, the
last time being late 2004. Of course I'm not really into the game anymore
since it's outdated for long, but I have very fond memories of it and the
first year after its release I must have been working it 20 times already,
the other ten times coming in bigger intervals until last year. And it's
been great every single time (except that I now know every secret spot and
the positions of all enemies and items in every level, making the game
quite unspectacular). And Wages of Sin, the expansion pack which I had to
look out on for a long time, was just as great.

And now it's happening, Sin 2 is finally around the corner. In the past it
was suggested that Ritual Entertainment were working on it after releasing
such games as Heavy Metal FAKK 2 and Star Trek: Elite Force II. The
problem was that they didn't find a publisher to release Sin 2 since Sin 1
wasn't the big success it should have been, mostly due to Activision
pushing the game out the door much too early, resulting in lots of big
bugs (instead of big bucks, ha ha ha >_<). I always knew that they would
make it one day, and recently checking
Planet Half-Life revealed the
news that Sin 2 was going to be released via Steam, without any publisher,
in episodes, hence its official name "Sin Episodes". And the big news is
that it's based on Valve's Source engine, the new tech wonder which powers
Half-Life 2! It's kind of ironic since Half-Life was Sin's biggest
concurrent (which won easily over Sin) in 1998, and now the companies
making these games join forces for the production of Sin 2...

There has been a website opened for a company called LegionPharma which
looks very real. However, to everyone who has read the Sin backstory on
the game CD, the name LegionPharma and their CEO's name Sherilyn Palmer
should ring a huge loud bell that this is a viral site created to
advertise Sin 2 behind the curtain! There are clues coded into the site,
be it little hints on the pages or in the source code, or even encrypted
messages stuck where only the best puzzlers can find them. These clues
lead to logins and passwords to secret sub-pages which offer Sin 2
content. So far we've seen concept art, very small screenshots and
audio. There are also some letters or e-mails from characters who might be
part of Sin's backstory, and the whole site is set up so that it looks as
if the events were really happening. In fact it's 2005 now which means
that Sin's true storyline kicks off in two years when the player character
John Blade will be born to Sherilyn Palmer Blade... Sin has always been
trying to be as real as possible in its original story and this website
and the puzzles that Ritual put into it (and update every day!) are proof
that they haven't lost the taste for the feel of the game, even before the
game is released.

Now, without spoiling further details (did you come here to see Sin or
pinball? XD), here are a few links to the most vital Sin 2 info:

www.ritual.com - the makers' website;
right now there's a big "1" on the splash page which means ONE day to go
until Sin 2's official announcement! (this counter started at 18, I think)www.ritualistic.com - Ritual's
official community page; if there are updates about Sin 2, we'll see them
there firstwww.legionpharma.com - the main
entrance to LegionPharma's website; to get access to Sin 2 stuff, check
the following link:
The Unfiction Forums: Sin 2 ARG - the ARGN players group has started
to crack the mystery to the LegionPharma site and puts out the solutions
to most complex puzzles with their knowledge to reveal the first Sin 2
content; definitely amazing to watch and very tensing!
Eurogamer's Sin Episodes Preview - a small summary of the first
official gaming magazine preview from PC Gamer UK

I'm trying to get the PC Gamer UK issue with the eight-page preview in the
coming time from a friend living in Britain. And if you are a Sin fan,
make sure you watch the counter when it reaches 0!

Stargate has been picked up by the shipping company yesterday and might
arrive this afternoon if not tomorrow.

...
3rd July 2005: Conclusions

I went straight from the previous news entry and decided to sell both
System 11 games, Black Knight 2000 and Diner, so both went on eBay after
the Pinball Network forum didn't want them. BK2000 went away for the
buy-it-now price, so I got the money back which I originally paid for the
machine. However, Diner wasn't that lucky and was sold far under its
value, a risk you always have to take when selling pinball games on eBay -
I wonder why so few people wanted it since there were 40 watchers shortly
before the end of the auction. Well, it happens and I can name at least
two situations in which I got similarly lucky when buying a machine.
I was at first afraid that the money wouldn't be sufficient to find a
decent deal for one of three DMD machines I looked for: Stargate, Johnny
Mnemonic or No Fear: Dangerous Sports. I tried the latter in Visual
Pinball a few weeks ago while STTNG wasn't working yet and I found that No
Fear is a very cool game which might even be a good successor to BK2000;
however it's not the best or most complex game I could get, and for that
reason I really wanted Stargate. And then, once I received some unexpected
money rain, I suddenly had a lot more than I ever hoped for and thus it
was now possible not only to buy one of these three games with security,
but to look for the very best conditions! I was lucky as hell that day
because when I entered to forum to ask for a Stargate, I found one still
on sale in perfect condition, right out of a private collection
which was handled with great care, and I only had to wait till afternoon
to get approval from the seller because he still had a reservation on the
machine for another potential buyer, but in the end I got the deal and
paid a whoppin' 950 Euros (!!) for the first "mint condition" pinball
machine I'm ever going to get, but I know that it will be worth it! I have
played Stargate three times and it was an absolute blast every single
time, and I've wanted this game for long. And after the very positive
experience I now have with STTNG, I'm more than convinced that Stargate is
the perfect companion - equally complex rules, very unique features (since
it's not a Williams game) and a great theme/license as the basis. My
friend Chris and I watched the Stargate movie on DVD yesterday in
preparation for the machine's arrival which will hopefully be by the end
of next week if everything goes well with the shipping company.

STTNG is now playable and has been
extensively challenged for the past few days, and except for cosmetics and
a small reset problem I'm still going to fix, the machine now works like a
charm. What I suspected has turned out to be true: STTNG is in fact the
first game ever since The Machine that gives me the addiction and
affection for pinball back after so many months of boredom, and it also
under-lines my decision to break with System 11 and older games and move
on to complex DMD games, of course within my financial range. When I
reconsider that I almost paid a four-digit number for Stargate, I'm forced
to wonder how far this is going, but I know that the machine is in perfect
shape and 950 isn't so much greater than a working but unshopped Stargate
would cost. And I really have the money in my hand right now, so this is
the best time to make pinball grand again!

I have finalized the long overdue STTNG
article describing lots of the gameplay and feel of the game. The
repair logs were moved to a separate page which is accessible from within
the article in the "Repair & Restoration" section.

...
13th June 2005: Considerations

To keep the load time of the front page friendly, I have decided to cut
off all old news except for the last seven entries. Since some info in the
older news might still be interesting, I have added a link to a separate
page which will contain all the old news, from the day this page opened to
the eighth-newest entry. The link can be found at the bottom of the front
page.

Another change in my life has made me wonder where I'm going with this.
Summarizing the past 13 months, I see that I had six or seven classic or
technically older pinball games in my collection, mainly driven by the
ambition to get "the" classic pinball machine, which ended with a failure
in Xenon. I had all the interesting System 11 Williams games like Pin*Bot,
Space Station, Black Knight 2000 and Diner, and except for the last two,
the other classic games never stayed very long. I guess I'm just not too
lucky with finding the right game for me, the one I want to keep at least
as long as I kept The Machine (which is the only game that stayed until
now since I got it one year ago). My decision to buy Diner was inspired by
the fall of the pinball hobby in my life, but already one month later I
decided that it wasn't enough and that I needed a modern game with higher
skill level, so I got Star Trek. But it still doesn't stop there!

In the past week I felt a little drawn back into summer 2004, which
usually happens almost every year in a certain time when the weather is
right or the situation around me is similar (deja-vu?). It surprised me
because this year is like no other. Still, I remembered the games I had
and the games I didn't have: Cirqus Voltaire, Johnny Mnemonic, Tales of
the Arabian Nights, The Getaway, Stargate, these are all games I became
interested in during 2004 and I played most of them at that time, either
in other collections or on location. Of course, almost all of these games
were out of my financial league and I was still finding many older games
more attractive and wanted to check them out first. Of course I believed
with almost every game that I would keep it forever. Today I looked over
the T2 article where I wrote that I would not sell T2 for any reason.
Well, now I have for a good reason. I think this page documents well how I
develop my skills and go up with my desires, but it also surprises myself.

While STTNG still doesn't work because I'm still waiting for replacement
parts and the fixed boards, I know this is the game I wanted and even
though I got "used" to having it stand around, I keep watching the series
and I prepare myself for the day when the game will play. I hope it will
get me back into the action, make me addicted like only The Machine did
one year ago because of its incredibly alluring atmosphere and the fact
that I still had to learn how to play real pinball. The Machine still
fascinates me and I pay more attention to her these days than I used to
for a while, but it is and will always be done and STTNG is the game that
I hope will challenge me again! But I'm waiting for that day... and
meanwhile I start thinking about those other modern and complex games
which might be equally challenging and would be great to have next
to Star Trek...

Maybe it's just the flashback I have that makes me want these games. But
if I face the two oldest games I own, which are Black Knight 2000 and
Diner, and I compare them to the everlasting Machine and the new, modern,
complex, challenging STTNG, I wonder whether I'm done with the whole
System 11 generation once and for all, whether I should sell both
to get a nice sum of money and continue on with another DMD game which is
equally alluring as (the non-working) STTNG!

I'm almost sure that I'm going to do it. And what I sooo long for is
Cirqus Voltaire which might be "the" DMD machine I want to have, but I'd
have to sell all four games to get the money for it! >_<

Maybe this is the beginning of a time with less machines, but more
quality? I am certainly ambitious about that.

...
6th June 2005: Thank You

After I had to reset the game ROM of The Machine because of
experimentation with STTNG and lost
all data, I set it all back up today and I put in this little advertising
message as a tribute to the Bride's voice.

I want to thank Stephanie for all the info
she gave me, especially in response to my article about The Machine.
You're a great friend.

...
4th June 2005: Pinball Diary

I have opened the article page for Star
Trek: The Next Generation. This page is a little special right now
because it does not yet include information about the gameplay, the theme
and whatnot; instead it describes how and why I got the machine and then
opens the "restoration diary", a series of logs I wrote that come with
photos of the progress I'm making. Since I have been working on the game
for weeks now, there are a lot of logs and pictures already on the page,
but there will be more logs until the machine is complete and working.
After this, I will separate the logs from the article and store them
elsewhere, and include the info about the game itself in the article.

...
23rd May 2005: Want to Eat From the
Floor?

Now you can in my freshly cleaned-up Diner where the floor shines like it
has rarely done before. The cleaning process is completed and the machine
plays like butter now, and I have taken this point in time to write and
finalize the article. Be warned
though that I got carried away (which rarely happens these days) and this
article may be the longest I ever wrote. It definitely has the most
photos, but most of them are very worth watching!
STTNG is still unplayable, but I have not let it rest in peace. Instead I
used the time to check for all errors I could find and to test some of the
boards with the help of a pinball friend in Berlin. I have decided to open
a kind of "log" to describe what I'm doing with the machine in steps until
it works. This will be updated as I make progress. You have to imagine
that my STTNG is like a puzzle with missing pieces: some have to be
purchased first, others are here but don't fit in correctly, and some are
damaged. Until this puzzle is complete, I'm playing Diner and try to go
ahead with whatever ideas I'll have for STTNG.

...
15th May 2005: Construction Zone

My room is currently more of a work area than an arcade: a few days ago I
started to disassemble and thoroughly clean Diner and the results are
fantastic. I want to wait with my Diner article until the cleaning is
complete because I'm taking photos along the way and I'll include them
along with the description of the process. It always makes articles more
interesting when they document restoration or a sort thereof.
But Diner isn't the only machine currently under construction. On Friday,
when I was just working on the machine and my room was a little mess, a
surprise visit by a shipping dude revealed that the Star Trek machine I
bought two weeks ago out of the Pinball Network forum (the deal in the bar
down the road didn't work) arrived already on this day even though it had
been picked up in Cologne just one day before! So now I had four pins in
my room and T2 as well as Xenon were planned to change location that
evening, but now STTNG stood there in the corridor and there was no room
to fit it anywhere until we had cleared out the space a few hours later.
It now stands where T2 used to be, which has been sold for higher price
than what I bought STTNG for (!), and Xenon is in the same place where T2
is now waiting to be picked up by the seller. You see, a lot happened that
day.

Now I am trying to get STTNG working.
Several components are/were missing or are damaged and these need to be
replaced, but I also worked on the machine the whole day yesterday,
finding out a lot of errors and correcting them. The most obvious and
blatant was the missing line fuse with a customized fuse holder which
didn't allow me to install a standard pinball fuse! I stole the line fuse
holder from Black Knight 2000 along with two coils and installed them in
STTNG, so now I could finally turn the game on and see what happens.
Unfortunately the audio driver board seems to be damaged and the brand new
dot matrix display I ordered and received is incompatible with the
machine! So I can't even see information on the display since it's blank
while the game goes into attract mode. I can't play yet because the start
button doesn't work, but that might be due to the fact that an important
opto board is missing in the ball trough which has to be sent to me next
week after it has been found by the seller. The guy who sent me the
machine forgot to put the legs into the package, so these will be sent to
me next week too! I'm currently using the T2 legs which will then be
disattached and replaced by the (normally black) STTNG legs.

So, three machines don't work, Black
Knight 2000 needs a new fuse holder and two new coils which I already
ordered (I could install them in STTNG later too, but I wanted to be quick
and so I decided to "lend" them from BK2000 which is rarely played),
Diner's cleaning needs to be finished and it's a pain to get the right
ramp and the cup disattached, plus I want to wait for new rubbers and
lamps before I finish this up, and these come next week together with the
coils. So, work is more ahead than play - and I hope that I'll get STTNG
playable in an acceptable time as the machine itself looks beautiful,
especially when it lights up. I only hope there's a way to get the DMD
working or else... >_<

...
25th April 2005: Changes

For those who haven't figured it out yet when reading the previous news, I
have a girlfriend who is not here in this moment and I need to keep my
life as interesting and changing as possible while I am waiting for her
return (which will be quite a while). So to sum it up, in the past couple
of weeks and especially days, there have been some things running through
my mind which I want to try. Some of these things are decisions I would
probably not make if my life was still like it used to be, but this does
not mean that these decisions aren't thought through. I am not somebody to
make quick decisions just because I feel like it; I am a planning person
and I reconsider most things twice.
In the pinball aspect the purchase of my Diner machine has helped me get
some fun back into the hobby. In turn my other three machines still bore
me. I have not written the Diner article yet because the package with the
parts I need for repair just arrived and I wanted to wait with the
shopping till I had them, so I will do it this week and take photos along
the way which will make for a nice story. The other three games are not
played much these days, but I did get to play them again when an older
friend of mine came by to visit me after years and he had to try all of
the machines together with me. I feel that Black Knight 2000 and The
Machine still challenge me (BK2000 will probably never cease to do that;
it's simply a pro game) and will get the fun and interest back after I
have done a few good weeks with Diner. The downside is that my beloved
Terminator 2 is starting to drop the excitement. When compared
superficially, this is no wonder since every machine surpasses T2 with
gameplay rules, speed and playfield assembly. T2 is a very open game which
does not look all that exciting and while it has all of the coolness a
Terminator item has to have - and I love this coolness the most about it -
the gameplay might still be fluent, but the rules and the assembly are
worn out after six months of continuous play. I probably played T2 the
most of all three games I had before I got Diner, and thus it has lost the
magic and excitement; not completely, but enough to rethink it.

I wouldn't say this if I had not met this girl. To some extent she is
responsible for all the changes I am about to make, but of course I'm not
very serious when I say this ;-) But what I feel now is just that while my
life has already changed so much in just one week (which is now almost two
months past me), I want to keep it changing and refreshed with all things
I love. What I love most is not pinball anymore (it used to be like that
before I met her) and so, saying goodbye to a machine I would otherwise
have kept for a longer time is not so hard anymore! Maybe it's just the
best time to quit it with one of them and get something in the upper
class. I am advancing my lifestyle and my pinball skill at the same time,
catching two birds with one stone.
At the moment I am heavily replaying the classic computer simulation The
Web from the Pro Pinball series (I want to write a paragraph about it in
the "Visual Pinball" section, but this will have to wait) and after
nine years of playing (it got me into pinball seriously) I am finally
starting to control the whole game, mastering the shots and upping my
skill and tactical playing with every game. While The Web does not play at
all like a real machine, I bet that the experience I got from one year of
playing real pinball helped me accomplish this on the computer. As a
result, I am looking at my machines now and seeing that maybe it's time to
advance my level of play in reality as well.

There are great 90s games which are much more complex, have great
technical features and keep you challenged far longer than T2 ever could.
As I said, The Machine and BK2000 still challenge me a bit, so I am not
tired of them (even if I was, I wouldn't sell my Bride) and Diner is new
and exiciting even though its rules and skill level are not more than the
other games I have. But that is why I think about it now - I have
bought Diner to get something different in my collection and it was worth
the money. I planned neither to buy a fifth machine nor to spend loads of
money on a new game. But ever since my passion for pinball has shifted to
a more realistic level, where I know that I simply cannot and don't want
to have more than four machines and that they are just games I want to
keep for entertainment, I had a flash of thought when I woke up yesterday
morning: "I am going to sell my T2 and buy the Star Trek down the street
in the bar." And if this doesn't work out, I will ask around the Pinball
Network forum for a Stargate. The decision is simple: I paid less than 500
Euros for my T2 and that's why I highly value it, but if I sell it, I
could easily get 650 or 700 for it because of its great shape. Add 100 or
200 to that (which I will have very soon) and I will get a really good
machine which is complex and has a much greater long-time replay factor
than any of the machines I own now. And this, together with my shifted
view on pinball, makes it relatively easy to say goodbye to T2 with the
thought in mind that I am simply moving up the ladder with my skill and I
have to get a game which climbs with me. Star Trek: The Next Generation
(STTNG) is said to be the best and most complex Steve Ritchie game of all
time, and even though I don't like widebody machines much and I am not a
Trekker at all, I have nothing against the theme (I did see a few episodes
here and there and my friend Chris is an enthusiast I can ask) - and the
machine was just wonderful the last time I played it in said bar down the
street. At that point I did not think about attempting to buy it, but
well, I wasn't aware that it might be the game I need to keep pinball
exciting. The machine looks really dirty, has a few mechanical problems
with the flippers and slings, but all the critical stuff like the cannons,
the targets, ball trough, rollovers and optos seem to work. At least I did
not see any problems when I played it, and it was beautiful to look at and
admire. The game plays smooth as silk and it's definitely a true
eyecatcher in a living room, and why shouldn't that be mine?
I would never buy a shopped STTNG from a forum member or other private
source because I have vowed not to pay a lot of money anymore for any
machine until my girl is back; I simply need the money elsewhere and
frankly I am just happy enough with what I have so I do not feel like 1000
Euros or more are what I have to spend on pinball. But the shape this
machine is in might drop down the price from the usual 1000 or 900 to 800
or 750, and I'm willing to pay that price since I expect to get a lot for
my almost-perfect T2. So I will just go down there tomorrow and ask
whether they are interested in my money offer. Should it not work, the
Stargate I mentioned would be my second target since the price is usually
between 700 and 900 for a good machine and while it is not as complex as
STTNG, it is a game which is incredibly fast, has missions and sublevels
and is very exciting even when you know your way around pinball. I played
Stargate three times in the same location, every time I visited Peter to
look at a machine I was going to buy from him.

So this is going to change soon. My T2 will go, decision made, and
something new will arrive. Sometimes one new thing (Diner) just isn't
enough!
Oh, and in case you wondered, I would sell all of my machines if it
had to be done for the person I love - even though she would break my neck
for doing that XD

... 14th April 2005: The Diner is Open

Yesterday I got it and today I spent probably two hours of my tight spare
time just to keep playing the machine, even though two features don't work
like they should and there are cosmetic problems! Diner is indeed a very
fine game; although mine is dirty and has some minor problems on the
playfield, it plays extremely fluently. The ramps are broad and long, the
bumpers pop loudly and with a lot of oomph, and the visuals are very cool
and detailed once you start appreciating them. Features like the cash
register or the cup just can't be found on any modern machine.
What I did not have in my mind anymore was the audio. Only a few voice
clips were still in my head. On first contact the audio distracted me and
will probably annoy some of my friends, but seriously, it takes some time
to get used to and I started loving what I heard. The music isn't what I
had expected, it's jazzy and funky and sticks in your mind, the voice
samples are indeed a little naggy but they are cooler than I thought, and
there are so many lovely little sound effects for the devices, the skill
shot, the ramps and rollovers, and these effects simply make the game
cute. Diner is stylish in the visuals, classic in its gameplay and sweet
in the audio, and it is a great change from the sci-fi themes I usually
collect.

Right now I am working on a few problems with the game and I will start
writing the article after this (or most of it) is done. The seller offered
to send me a new connector housing for the burnt GI connector and a few
replacement parts, so if I receive these in time, the GI repair will be
part of the initial article release.

... 10th April 2005: And a Little More

Although I am still feeling that it's hard for me to come up with good
info at the moment (I'm simply not in a writing mood), I added the fourth
part to the "Operator's Stuff" section,
finally established the "Links" page with a basic
set of links I instantly came up with (expect more links to follow later),
and I also updated the articles for Black
Knight 2000 and Terminator 2 with
inside info from Stephanie Rogers, so make sure you check them out.

Xenon has been sold and disassembled, waiting in the next room to be
picked up by somebody by the end of April (that wasn't planned, but it
turned out this way). My Diner will arrive on Wednesday evening and take
the spot in my room Xenon had before. Note of caution: the Xenon backbox
which cannot be folded down fell on my right middle finger last night when
we disattached it, resulting in a lot of pain and an over-sensitive
fingertip today, and probably for a more few days. Looks like the head
wound I got two weeks ago won't be the only injury of the year... when my
girl comes back from Japan, she will face a guy who has been through a lot
XD

Pics of the day:

... 7th April 2005: Little Update

I know the updates come in slower than expected, but I'm getting there.
It's not the updating itself, it's the time and concentration I need to
find to write all of the text on the site.
I wrote two more parts for "Operator's Stuff"
covering the basic things and cleaning process. The "Links" section is
still missing, but I will do this one right after I finished "Operator's
Stuff" so you can find the sites that are of interest.

I'm having a regular e-mail contact with Stephanie Rogers at the moment
and she comes out with little stories and details every now and then. I
planned to compile an article from that, but obviously it's better if I
put game-specific details into the game's respective article. This means
that games like Black Knight 2000 and
Terminator 2 will be updated shortly
with inside info from Steph. Or did you know who sang the Choir of Angels
on Black Knight 2000? ;-)

Great news for me is that Xenon is sold (it only needs to be picked up by
the winning bidder) and while I didn't get the Diner on eBay because it
went over 600 (!) Euros, I got a nice deal on the Pinball Network forum,
where a Diner was offered by somebody living relatively near to Berlin. He
will even bring the machine here himself. It should all be done by the
middle of next week!

And Fine, if you are reading this by any circumstance... I'm missing you
and I love you.

...
2nd April 2005: The Bride Speaks Out!

Half a year ago I wrote an e-mail to Stephanie Rogers, the voice of The
Machine, and asked whether she could tell me anything about her work for
Williams back in 1990. As you might have read in my
Machine article, Stephanie is nowadays
an independent rock music recording artist - and a great one at that.
Today I received an e-mail from her which she obviously wrote after she
visited this site and read the article. While she said that she remembers
writing to me earlier, that mail never reached me and I'm happy that she
got back to me with some very interesting and funny details about the
recording of the Bride's voice clips, and she gave me permission to put
them on my site. So check the updated
article's "Media" section to see what Stephanie said!

...
31st March 2005: One Thousand

That's right, Silverball Magic has had more than a thousand hits since it
was launched. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and looked at my work, and
more thanks to everyone who keeps coming back! Look out for the next
update this weekend!

...
29th March 2005: BILLION!

I finally made it, after nine months of failed attempts: The Machine
granted me access to the BILLION shot and I took it with ease, and all of
this in a 20 minute game I had never expected - in the moment I'm not much
into playing my current machines all that often and so I wasn't even very
motivated tonight, but obviously my calm helped shape a great game - the
loops flew like seldom before, the ramp shots came as if I had practised
them for years, and then the Big Wheel awarded me the prize everyone aims
for... and now I'm in!

... 27th March 2005: Update

My life is changing, but I am trying to get it all under control and so I
took the time today to look over all pages and set some things right. For
example, I updated some of the pinball machine articles with a
notification saying that these machines were sold to someone or that their
cosmetical status has changed after restoration. I also included two new
machines on the "Machines I Want"
page, however these are not all. You will also notice that the "Visual
Pinball" and "Operator's Stuff" sections still don't have new content, but
forgive me for that since I can only write so much in one day and the next
update will include at least one finished section of the two, and it will
come during the next week since I'm on vacation.
On another note, my changed day-to-day life has affected my pinball hobby
and as a result I have decided to sell Xenon and buy a
Diner, and I also do not plan
anymore to buy a 1000 Euros WPC machine by the end of May, which was a
goal I had ever since I started the job I will be quitting in seven weeks.
But you know, some things are just more important than pinball and these
things (or rather, a person) have (has) made me cut a few things short
with pinball... at the moment I am quite out of it or at least I sure was
for the past two weeks. I'm finding the interest in it again, but I need
something new and unusual NOW to get me back up since my current machines
bore me to death, and I wonder why. And so, Xenon will go - more details
on why it's Xenon going and not one of the others can be found in the
update in the lower half of the Xenon
article.

...
12th March 2005: Break

I won't update the site for a while just like I haven't updated it in one
month for personal reasons, and in the coming weeks it will be quite tough
for me to live with a clear head, so please be patient until the next
update which will include finished "Operator's Stuff" and "Visual Pinball"
sections as well as more machine articles.

Fine, I'll miss you.

...
8th February 2005: Xenon Arrived

Yes, it's been here for a few days now and my room has been totally
restructured to fit it in as the fourth pinball machine! Look at the
madness of furniture moving in "My Room" and be
sure to check out photos of Xenon and an accompanying article I just
finished and put up here!

...
1st February 2005: Bug Alert!

After confusion, forum discussion and testing, I have found a bug in The
Machine's software that has obviously been left unnoticed so far. If
you make a score that is greater than highscore #4 but smaller than #3,
your score will NOT be saved in the highscore list! You will still be
asked to enter initials and be awarded the highscore credit if active, but
the highscore list will NOT be updated with your new #4 spot! This can be
tested and reproduced on any Machine with the final game ROM version L-7.
This also means that there is no fix for this serious glitch and the only
way you can save a #4 highscore is by scoring any of the first three spots
so the score that used to be on #3 will move down to #4 - and be saved
there. Rest assured that saving your #1, #2 and #3 highscores works,
though! It is beyond me how Williams or any Machine player/owner could not
notice and report this bug, so I'm doing that here. It's a sad fact, but
we'll have to live with it.

...
31st January 2005: Tournament Time

The first Silverball Magic pinball tournament started later than planned
on Friday. Originally I had set the start time at 19:00, but since not
everybody arrived in time and my Terminator 2 brought up some minor
problems when I tried to reinstall all the devices on the play-field
after cleaning and polishing it, including flasher replacement and bumper
lamp installation, the introduction phase commenced at 20:15 and the
tournament started at 20:30. The rules were simple and are not mine: the
players were separated in three groups for the three machines, each group
being made of different skill level players. The weakest group (including
an 11-year-old girl who had never played pinball before but was hot on
joining the tournament the whole week) started on T2 while the "pro group"
started on Black Knight 2000. The intermediate group started playing The
Machine and after three games the groups circled machines. First place on
a game inside the group resulted in three points for that player, second
place awarded two and last place one point. After it was over, the points
were added and the winner was the one with the most points.
The reaction of players who were new to the recent machines, like my
friend Janine who last played The Machine and Pin*Bot when it was still
here, were rather positive, however Elias got pissed off with The Machine
since he's having a hard time with her recently and that didn't change for
the tournament. Needless to say, the players who scored points on The
Machine earlier scored them this night as well, so the game itself is not
guilty! ;-)
You can find photos of the tournament in the updated
"My Room" section.

And look what the due time cleaning and cosmetic repair of T2 led to!

... 24th January 2005: Deal Made!

And just four days later I can report my luck of finding a Xenon for sale
(actually for exchange, but the seller accepted my purchase offer) and a
deal I couldn't refuse! For 300 Euros plus roughly 100 bucks for shipping,
I will get this baby driven to my home, hopefully by the end of next week!
And now I really need to start thinking about organizing space for my
pins... maybe somewhere else. But where?

So far the machine is 600 km away from me
and I don't have a single cent in my hands, but this will change by the
end of January and hopefully the shipping company will play along around
that time. As visible on the photos, the machine needs some serious work,
but I guess that many Xenons look like this as I've often enough read
articles about complete playfield restoration, always with the comment,
"Not many machines are in such a good shape when you buy them initially."
Well, this babe is from 1980, so it's been 24 years. I could have had a
perfectly tuned Xenon from Berlin which was restored and optimized by
Berlin's pinball specialist enthusiast "MIB", but of course he won't sell
the thing for 300 Euros (rather 600) and Xenon may be a legend and thus
worth a little more than other simple EM games (compare these 300 bucks I
pay for Xenon to the 200 I paid for F-14, Space Station, and Pin*Bot!),
but it's still EM and simple and I'm not going to spend more than 300 on
it, so this is what I get in return - a machine to work on. And to be
honest, this is perfect be-cause... if you can remember the toy cars or
Lego models you had in your childhood, what was more fun - building and
caring for them or looking at the result in your dusty shelf all day? Of
course Xenon plays well and is actually a little more exciting than
comparable games, but I will get a lot out of restoring it instead of just
playing, so the machine will keep me busy even if the gameplay has blown
out. With the fair knowledge I gained from successfully changing my
Machine's playfield and shopping it, I trust in my skills to try out a
full restoration on this Xenon machine and I can learn a lot more by going
this farther step, so that next time I buy another machine that might be
even more devastated, I'll have even more skill to fix this up. Pinball is
not just a game, it's a hobby which involves gradually improving your
working skills, and especially with an old model like Xenon it'll just be
nice to get it back up and running flawlessly, and maybe restoring the
playfield so that it looks similar to the Xenons I've seen on photos
(which looked close to perfect). If I can manage this, it will be a great
reward for all the work and this machine will be really "mine".

Xenon, I'm looking forward to meeting you!

On another note, Silverball Magic will host its first in-house pinball
tournament this Friday! That's right, my room will be converted into a
real arcade for a day and since winter holidays are currently in effect,
Friday night will be a real pinball party here. This all goes well with
Winter-een-mas
(www.wintereenmas.com) even though pinball is not literally video
gaming, but it's still arcade gaming in a true form. So far about eight
people will join the tournament and battle for the prize as master of my
three games T2, The Machine and Black Knight 2000. Of course I'll take a
lot of photos and post them here.

...
20th January 2005: Xenon

You can call me crazy, but I am seriously thinking about buying a
fourth pinball machine. The reason for this is the lack of atmosphere I
talked about in my article about
my visit to Hobbykoch. In the last couple of weeks I have started feeling
that I get more and more routined with my three machines since, well, they
are perfect as they are (except for some restoration that needs to be
done) and I keep circling between them every week. Today I play The
Machine, next day T2, next day The Machine again, next day Black Knight
2000. The good news is that it took me seven months to find the three
machines I am finally happy with. Who knew that I would have seven
machines in these seven months and that my room would indeed be filled
with the maximum possible amount by the end of 2004? And I sure as hell
didn't expect to find the three games I really like that fast. I was
disappointed or just not fully satisfied when I had Space Station and
Pin*Bot for a while and thus gave up on the "searching for a classic"
interlude I had in summer since none of these older games really gave me
the old school pinball feeling I was looking for. But why did I look for
that anyway?
I consider myself a complex player, i.e. I need a complex machine: lots of
rules or at least a ruleset that can hold itself for quite a while without
losing challenge. The machine is ideal if it has a single ultimate goal to
work up to since that makes it all the more interesting to play for even
if you don't score big points (and playing only for points can get
boring). The games I have now give me that challenge time and time again
although they are not as complex as the later 90s DMD games which have
amazingly many secrets, modes and features, but most of these cost a price
I cannot pay - I can by the end of May when I finish my civil service and
that's when I'm planning to buy such a beast. Still, I did play pinball
machines which were simple, old and classic and these things can give you
a feeling that has a lot more "raw pinball" atmosphere than the new games
have. Playing The Machine and BK2000 is not necessarily pinball in the
classic sense if you look at the playfield construction, gameplay flow and
the modern themes. They are great games and I love them for that. But why
do they lose atmosphere? It might have to do with my room which is of
course not completely pinball-customized. Then, I see them every minute I
am here while many others have their machines in basements or spare rooms.
The less you see something, the more you appreciate it, goes the saying?
But the machines themselves, even if they challenge me (and I don't plan
giving any of them away soon), aren't new anymore. The pinball collector's
heart just wants more! It doesn't matter whether my space is tight or how
good my current machines are. Three is not good enough. But the fact is,
while May will hopefully bring me one of these cool DMD machines with lots
o' features, that's a long time away... and I've been rethinking how a
classic machine (and this time, a real classic) can bring new life
into my collection and enhance the atmosphere of them all. I wouldn't want
to own a classic game alone because of its simplicity. That's why I
dropped out on buying a Space Shuttle or Xenon last year when the chances
came. At that time I had already stopped trying with Pin*Bot and moved on
to the newer games like T2, and the "phase" was over. But now it's winter,
a classic and romantic season, and what I really want (again) now... is Xenon.

...
13th January 2005: 50 Pinball Machines

I got the chance to meet Berlin's probably biggest pinball machine
collection two days ago! Fifty games of which I didn't even see every one
are owned by Pinball Network forum member Hobbykoch who generously invited
me to come see his collection and meet some of the greatest machines ever
built - "so you know what the people in the forum keep talking about". I
took more than 20 photos of which I selected about 15 and put those into a
rather long article I just finished up. This article describes in detail
what the visit was like and which machines I played, and gives a cool
insight into a collection you've hardly seen before. I put this article
into the slightly changed "My Machines" section where I will start
including such articles of machines I played elsewhere. Check the article
out here!
I am trying to find some time to actually write the other article about
Berlin's pinball machines and locales I visited so far, update the
"Operator's Stuff" section and generally refine the site a bit - you might
have noticed that some things are being slightly redesigned to perfect the
site's image. While I won't update it too regularly, I hope to bring you
more information soon.

...
5th January 2005: Happy New Year

Hey, a happy new year to everyone and welcome back. I haven't been able
to update the site for some time because I finally upgraded my computer
to a new shiny ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard and an Athlon 64 3000+
processor. The video card is still to follow. Now that I'm satisfied
with my pinball collection for a while, I actually can afford to do
this. After formatting my hard drive and restoring all the files and
software, I realized that FrontPage was missing and I can't find the CD
anymore, so I'm now writing this with NVU, the free graphical website
editor based on Mozilla technology. So far it's a nice change, but I
have trouble handling the minimal stuff like hyperlinks, tool-bars etc.
Plus, it is a beta version and once I find FrontPage again, I'm gonna
go back. (No, I'm not an HTML coding master, thankyou-verymuch ;-)

Since I won't be adding a new pinball game to my collection so soon (I
expect the next to come in May, maybe a little earlier, depends on my
taste, money and especially space), I will now concentrate on updating
the other sections: "Visual Pinball", "Operator's Stuff" and
the machines that I want in "My Pinball Machines". As I said before,
this will take some time, but we're getting there.
My site can also be found on PinLinks.org
now which lists all kinds of pinball pages sorted by page name and by
offered games. If you check the Internet
Pinball Database now and look for a game I own, click the link for
more info at PinLinks and you'll find my site listed there with a
direct link to the game article.

On another note, here's a little advertising from me as an anime fan: if
you are only slightly interested in Japanese animation and science fiction,
watch the just-released Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Seriously,
anything I have seen in anime is blown away by this. Of course you should
at least watch the first Ghost in the Shell movie before that if you haven't
seen it already, but since both movies kick ass (GITS fan here!) and they
are attractive even to non anime fans because of the realistic design and
live-action type story, mark my words - and especially Innocence with its
brand new animation, audio and the latest story development in the GITS
universe is a master-piece. The official site is
http://www.gofishpictures.com/GITS2/main.html
and you can find the trailer in a reasonable quality here.

...
25th December 2004: Merry X-Mas

Well, a merry Christmas to
everyone who's reading this! In Berlin it's between 6 and 9 degrees
celsius and there is of course no snow at all - a more and more usual
condition. This year doesn't feel like Christmas to me at all, but at
least I have the classic winter feeling that I love so much (even
though I don't love winter). However, I thought I should use the time
and wrote the complete Visual Pinball intro-duction which was missing
for too long already. Now the links to the virtual pinball tables I put
under my articles make sense, and you can find out how to play them by
reading the "Visual Pinball" section. Some links are still missing and
have been replaced by placeholders because VPForums is down at the
moment of this writing. I will add these links along with parts 2 and 3
next time I update.

I won't update the site as often as I used to because I have come back
to a project I left for a while and I want this project to gain
atten-tion and progress. It's an anime-based game modification for
Unreal Tournament 2004 I am working on with a small team of anime fans
on the web. We are still looking for people with the technical
understanding of the engine, especially coding, If you're interested in
the game, look at this
forum thread and read our design
document which is outdated by now, but still informative and
summarizes the ideas we have.

...
15th December 2004: Return of The Machine

Heh, this entitled just the last half hour. After playing Black Knight
2000 for exactly one week since arrival (and you've noticed that I
haven't updated for exactly this time), I got so used to the flow of
that game that when I turned The Machine on tonight and started my
first game after seven days, I was overwhelmed by its quality, speed
and game flow again. She's just so different! I mean, I played some WPC
games which were set up in a nearby cinema recently, so my friend Chris
and I went down last weekend to check them out - and I got into the
flow of those new machines faster than I could get back into The
Machine's flow now after being used to BK2000. Not only that, but also
the perfect look of this restored beauty surprises me every time I
leave her turned off for a few days and then go back to play her. It's
like the first time, every time. Another great point why this game
rocks so much! - and stays my favourite even though BK2000 is like the
dream come true at the moment.
Speaking of him, the Knight is doing well and everyone who has seen him
likes him. Read: really digs him. The little problems with the insert
lamps, the nonfunctional u-turn switch and the dirty playfield are
almost completely solved by now and I only need to finish the cleaning
and polishing this weekend when I have more time, by disassembling the
upper playfield and cleaning it separately. But the quick polishing job
on both playfields in the visible areas proved to be very necessary:
after this was done, the game almost doubled (!) in speed; well, at
least it felt like that. Now it's really goddamn fast, but the flow is
still the same. You get into a circular rush after a while because the
playfield is designed so that the ball moves in a circle no matter
where you shoot. The Machine's flow is totally different, so as I said,
it was almost like playing her for the first time when I tested her
tonight. It's even a different feeling to come out of the room's edge
where BK2000 is and stand in the middle again...

During the next days, I will work out the "Visual Pinball" section so
that all the references to that section will start making sense. This
section will include links to all necessary software and detailed
instructions how to install and configure it, so you can start playing
away on your computer. I will also review some great and some not so
great commercial computer pinball simulations in this section.

...
9th December 2004: Finally

BLACK! KNIGHT! 2000!

So it was Wednesday after all. Ever since yesterday afternoon I've been
playing! I have now finally sat down and finished the article page
about Black Knight 2000 which can be found here. Be aware though that this
article is longer, has more pictures and other content compared to the
articles I wrote for my other games. Black Knight 2000 just deserves
it. It is THE game, no less! I promised you a big update? Well, go to
the page and be surprised what I did to make it work! Premiere photos
of a shipped machine and the unpacking process are included as well as
detailed playfield shots, two audio files and a discussion of the
Visual Pinball conversion. Maybe a video file will follow later, who
knows?

I have four words to say. "Stand up and fight!"

...
7th December 2004: Black is Beautiful

Only a few hours separate me from the dream machine, the Black Knight
2000! If all goes really well, it should arrive today at 16:00, however
they wrote in the confirmation e-mail that it might take at the latest
till Wednesday to deliver the machine since they drive rounds and it's
not clear whether they can manage to be here this afternoon. They said
they would call and tell me which they didn't, so I will do the
opposite and call them today once I have arrived at work. If they tell
me it's today, I'll be off work early without asking and head home at
double speed. I have never been as excited about a pinball game as this
time! Tonight I took the music samples available on the IPDB and mixed
them together to shape a five minute "song" which has all the segments
of BK2000's music together. I have up-loaded this file already to my
webspace and it can be found here.
Note that the samples I made this song of are "copyrighted" by the IPDB
and the original provider is unknown.
You can look forward to something huge once the machine is here. Tons
of photos, multimedia, a comparison of the Visual Pinball table versus
the real machine... it will be a bigger game page than the others in
the list.

I haven't updated anything else yet because I didn't really know what
to update, to be frank. Taking all the photos of devices and
under-playfield technology will take some time, so the "Operator's
Stuff" page will require a little overhaul. The only thing I could
still add is the photo collection of the second Machine which is gone
now. I got 40 Euros for the job; not a bad price considering that I
wanted less.

...
4th December 2004: Back With a Vengeance

Well, the course is over and it was actually better than I thought.
Good thing: I got to play two pinball machines in the city, The Shadow
by Bally which was in pityful condition and quite unplayable (not that
I bothered with the theme anyway) and a well-working Lord of the Rings
by Stern from 2002 if I'm correct. The latter is not my taste with the
fantasy theme and the film, but the gameplay is great. A lot of air
action, fast loops, five multiball modes, what more can you ask for? If
you see a LOTR around, go give it a run.
The second Machine is finished but it's far from perfect. A lot of GI
lamps are dead and the insert lamps which work are dampened down
because of contact resistance. The playfield with the mylar plays well,
but it's nothing compared to an unmylared and waxed game. The left
flipper's coilstop must be broken because as much power as the flippers
have, the left one loses it on ball contact because of the missing
coilstop. The ramps work though. The whole game feels a little broken
and doesn't play as fluently as mine, but that's not my job to care
for. The game will be picked up this evening and make room for the
soon-to-arrive Black Knight 2000, coming next Tuesday or Wednesday. If
there's something I am more eager and hot for than Half-Life 2, it's
this game.
As you have noticed, the site has all of my machines accessible now.
Next up is the addition of a small picture gallery of the twin sister
Machines as a kind of memorial, followed by the extension of the
"Operator's Stuff" section and the addition of the huge Black Knight
2000 feature next week.

...
25th November 2004: Double Vision

Am I seeing double? No, this is for real! The second Bride just arrived
and took Pin*Bot's spot that was left empty for quite a while.
Depending on the time it takes, she might even stay here until shortly
before BK2000 shows up.

This game seriously needs help.
It's not just about rebuilding the top playfield like he said; he
"accidentally" cut quite a few wires going to the Heart Ramp instead of
unplugging the connector of the ramp under the playfield. Reinstalling
those will be a little puzzle. The helmet needs some screws, the head
is totally dusty, and the left flipper assembly has a problem with the
coilstop which I haven't looked at yet (maybe the coilstop is
missing?!). Plus, the game is still mylared and the mylar is in similar
condition like the one on my spare playfield used to be: scratches, but
thankfully not as deep as mine were, and polishing might actually get
some away. But bubbles are everywhere and where there's no mylar, the
typical wear spots are visible. Funny thing is that the unmylared parts
are almost not yellowish at all. I also find it interesting that the
sexy sweet "wood and basement" scent my Machine originally had (but
lost after restoring since being open all the time) is exactly copied
by this one, i.e. this game has the exact same scent though it was
located in a different place. He ;-)

I promise to add Pin*Bot and Space Station either tonight or tomorrow.
I already edited the photos and they only need to be put together with
the text and HTML. I'll also update the "Operator's Stuff" section with
photos or schematic pictures of the devices I already des-cribed
there, and of course the other parts will be added over time as well.
So look out for some stuff to come next since I completed Half-Life 2
yesterday and I'm feeling much better and ready to go! Speaking of
going, I'll have to leave for an annoying course of studies on Monday
and won't be back till Friday, so this means silence on this site till
then. I really don't want to go, but unless I coincidentally catch a
real illness shortly before going, there's no choice. On the other
hand, I'll know that my BK2000 is on the way to me the same day I
return (Friday). Estimated arrival date is still 7th December though it
might be the 8th instead (they said they'll call me and tell me).

...
21st November 2004

Added a part of the "Operator's Stuff" section which now includes the
full first part, "how pinball machines work". head over if you're
interested in learning the technical stuff. The other parts will come
soon.
It seems that I might have a little delay with the left two machines I
wanted to add this weekend. It's because of a personal problem I want
to divert myself from which I can do best by having friends here and
playing something instead of working.

...
19th November 2004

Added the section "How to Get Your Own" which describes what you need
to do if you want to get yourself a pinball machine! Also, expect
updates in the list of my pinball machines tomorrow or this weekend. I
promise to finish Space Station and Pin*Bot quickly. Oh, and don't
worry about the small German text at the bottom of this page: it's the
new counter I registered at x-stat.de for free just to keep track of
how many people are coming here.

...
18th November 2004

Whew! After Lycos repeatedly accused me of abusing my free Tripod
account, which was *not* the case, I decided to switch to a more
convenient webspace host and moved to 1&1. This time I pay (an
affordable amount of) money to keep the webspace going, I've got 100 MB
and a traffic limit of 7.5 GB, and the domain name is now a REAL domain
named www.silverball-magic.com!
So, welcome back to the site and forgive me for the short downtime as
it was entirely Lycos' fault. Don't use them, they are a bunch of
whackos who start bitching about traffic they never experienced only to
make you sign up for paid webspace. But 1&1 is far cheaper while
offering double the space and traffic.
So, have you been playing Half-Life 2? I got the game on its release
day two days ago and I've been SO into it that it's really a great way
to get back into computer gaming for a while which I kinda lost
attachment to because of all those pinball-related things. Plus, HL2
will keep the waiting time for the Black Knight 2000 short. If you want
to know what I think of the game, you can go to the
Bubblegum Crisis Center forums and read a short review I wrote
there after the first few hours of playing (German readers can go
here for a German equivalent of my English review, rewritten for a
German forum). In three words: GET THIS GAME. It's the BEST 3D shooter
the gaming world ever had. Graphics, AUDIO (especially!), physics,
character animation, voice acting, gameplay, innovation... it's all
close to per-fection. Doom 3 was great, but HL2 beats it in all areas.

So, any pinball news? Well, there's an empty spot in my room which
needs to be filled, and my T2 works again after I got the replace-ment
parts including the plunger (which looks weird). I will attempt to
repair the bumper lamps sometime in the future, but probably after I
got BK2000 since I'm too busy playing Hl2 right now. XD

... 14th November 2004

Added Terminator 2 to the list of my machines, refined some stuff on
existing pages and extended the mini glossary. Expect Space Station and
Pin*Bot to come tomorrow and/or Tuesday for completion of my
collection. Tonight my Pin*Bot was picked up by the buyer and I now
have 250 Euros in my pocket which I'll put securely away and wait for
Black Knight 2000 coming on 7th December, just Tuesday after I come
back from the course of studies which I'll have to go through from 29th
November to 3rd December. It bugs me, really, but the great thing is
that once I return home, I'll know the game is on the way to me and
I'll sleep better. XD
My friends will be wondering where Pin*Bot has gone, but I won't tell
anybody which machine is his followup because they will be sur-prised a
lot when they see the Black Knight rolling around. The empty spot in my
room is something to get used to for three weeks, but I will have a
second Machine standing there next weekend for repair, so it will be an
interesting time.

...
10th November 2004

And it's getting even better. The shipping costs were dramatically
reduced from an actual 245 Euros (holy shit!) which the company wanted
to have (130 was an estimation given by the seller of the Black Knight)
down to only 70 for the whole way from Belgium to my
doorstep. This is incredible! I greatly thank that shipping company in
advance for this more than fair price, and this also explains why so
many pinball collectors here use this company to get their machines
shipped. So, finally this Black Knight 2000 is indeed cheaper than my
Terminator 2 even with the shipping costs attached, and cheaper than
the one on eBay would have been with shipping. But on top of that, it's
much better in shape. What can I say? GRRREAT!
The site is slowly growing and as you have probably noticed, the
pinball explanation section, two more of my machines and my room have
been added. Don't worry, all the other stuff will come soon because I
like the way this site is turning out so nothing will stop me from
continuing.
When the Pin*Bot is picked up (maybe this weekend, maybe next), I will
have an interesting situation in my room: the buyer asked me if I would
fix and rebuild his Machine which is funny enough since I just did a
complete overhaul of my own Machine (just look at the article I wrote
about The Machine in my game list) and so I am the perfect candidate to
ask for this. This means that I will have two Brides next to
each other in my room for a day or two! It will be an interesting
comparison in terms of quality and playability, and it's the first job
I do for another pinball fan. Nice, I feel important now XD Just
kidding.

...
8th November 2004

What a great day! I got my Black Knight 2000 settled after all by
contacting the guy in Belgium and asking if he would sell the machine
without the second playfield because I had not enough money otherwise.
Well, he agreed and dropped the price about 100 Euros! He also sent
photos along and wow, that playfield looks awesome; who needs one for
spare if you've got this? The printed backglass (no translite on BK2000
even though it's from 1989, a specialty) looks awesome with the
complete mirror effect. And to top it all off, this BK has the rare prototype
plastics instead of the usual ones, and those look a lot better
since they are more modern and industrial than the blue castle you
normally have on this game. Still the price is under 500 and with 475
Euros it's even cheaper than my Terminator 2 and the BK on eBay. The
only downside is that it's still the most expensive machine I ever
bought since the shipping is 130 Euros. Well, it's a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity and I also found a buyer for my Pin*Bot today which will
give me some money (and space) back that will be used for BK2000. The
new game will arrive in the beginning of December.
Here are a few pictures:

I will add information about
Black Knight 2000 to the "machines that I want" subsection of my
pinball machines. Check it out tomorrow when I expect it to be ready
because this game is one you don't want to be caught not knowing about!

...
7th November 2004

I'm so disappointed! I had a
Black Knight 2000 under my watch on eBay and missed it in the last five
seconds by FOUR Euros. It went away for 507.99 before I could correct
my bid up to 510. Argh! Getting a BK2000 is very hard these days, for
one because there were not so many produced (5700) and also because
it's a serious collector's item who only few people dare to sell. In
the six months of my pinball career there has not been any BK2000 for
sale anywhere, but this was the second on eBay in only four weeks and I
missed both. There is one available in Belgium that I might get, but
the price tag is high and the shipping would probably cost a lot... I
am also thinking of bidding on a cheap Whirlwind since I've always been
interested in that machine (beautiful playfield with lots of action),
but the theme turns me off. Buying a Whirlwind would be like buying
"the cat in the bag", so I'm not sure what I'll decide tonight.